A depth camera can obtain depth images including information about a location of a human or other object in a physical space. The depth images may be used by an application in a computing system for a wide variety of applications. Many applications are possible, such as for military, entertainment, sports and medical purposes. For instance, depth images including information about a human can be mapped to a three-dimensional (3-D) human skeletal model and used to create an animated character or avatar.
To obtain a depth image, a depth camera typically projects infrared (IR) light onto one or more object in the camera's field of view, which may also be referred to as the capture area. The IR light reflects off the object(s) and back to the camera, where it is incident on an image pixel detector array of the camera, and is processed to determine the depth image.
Some depth cameras utilize structured light to illuminate a capture area. Such a depth camera may utilize a collimated laser diode and a diffractive optical element (DOE) to produce the structured light. However, depending on the area to be illuminated, a collimated laser diode may not provide a sufficient amount of light. Additionally, limiting the pointing tolerance for such a configuration could be difficult.